Goodspeed Presents 8th Annual FESTIVAL OF NEW ARTISTS, Now thru 1/20

The Eighth Annual Goodspeed Festival of New Artists, produced by Goodspeed Musicals' Max Showalter Center for Education in Musical Theatre, kicks off its tremendously popular three day festival of brand new works today, January 18, at the Goodspeed Opera House with a staged reading of Nine Wives.

On Saturday, January 19, the rocking new musical Come From Away debuts. On the final day of the festival, the unconventional tale Princesses: a new rock musical will be presented. Several special events will round out this exciting weekend. Tickets and Festival Packages are available at the Goodspeed Box Office or by calling 860.873.8668. Tickets are $15 each for one show, $10 each for students and can be purchased online at www.goodspeed.org as well as through our Box Office. The 2013 festival is sponsored in part by the Noël Coward Foundation, lead corporate sponsor RisCassi & Davis, P.C. and The Adolph and Ruth Schnurmacher Foundation, Inc.

This year, Goodspeed's ever-popular Festival Package has been expanded. TWO FESTIVAL PACKAGES have been created. The Gold Package is an all-access pass to a weekend full of special events. This complete festival experience includes admission to all three staged readings; the ultra-popular Friday and Saturday Night Cabarets; the New Musical Preview, a short preview of a new musical headed to The Norma Terris Theatre in 2013; the Symposium panel discussion with musical theatre luminaries; your choice of festival seminar sessions; a Saturday evening pre-show dinner at the Gelston House and a Meet the Writers Reception which will complete the weekend's festivities - all for only $89. The NEW Silver Package includes admission to all three staged readings, the Symposium, The New Musical Preview and Meet the Writers Reception. Also included in both Festival Packages is a tour of the expansive Goodspeed Scene Shops.

Goodspeed Opera House tours will be offered throughout the weekend for both Festival Package and single ticket holders.

"The Eighth Annual Goodspeed Festival of New Artists, with its expanded programs and wonderful new talents, highlights our commitment to developing new musicals," said Michael P. Price, Executive Director of Goodspeed Musicals. "It's thrilling for us to see the Goodspeed campus bustling in wintertime. Our community comes alive when hundreds of musical theatre fans from around the country join the best and brightest new writers and performers as they work together to create the future of musical theatre," he added.

Productions from the three composing teams included in the Goodspeed Festival of New Artists and the schedule of Special Events include:

Nine Wives tells the story of Henry Mann, a 32-year-old bachelor who discovers that the love of his life has met someone new and is about to get married. What's worse, he's been invited to her wedding! What follows are Henry's frantic attempts to find a woman he can take as his date - a potential future wife - to prove to his ex- fiancée (and the world) that he too is ready to move on.

Come From Away is a rocking musical about when 38 planes from around the world were diverted to a small, Canadian community on September 11th, 2001 - doubling its population in an instant. While the world witnessed the worst acts of humankind, the stranded passengers had their faith in humanity restored by the spirited people who comforted those who had come from away.